Palm, Inc. and City Chase Inc. today announced that Palm Centro smartphones will aid thousands of U.S. contestants competing in physical, intellectual and humorous challenges during the 2008 City Chase events in eight major cities – Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Boston, Seattle and Chicago. Over four months, the Palm Centro will help teams complete tasks, search for ChasePoints and ultimately win a spot in the national and world championships of the City Chase urban-adventure race.

With the Centro's easy access to the web, maps and directions, plus texting and calling abilities, the two-person teams will be able to make quick decisions as they run, walk or use public transit to navigate their city routes.

City Chase, an internationaly recognized organization that provides reality experiental one-day events, invites everyone from couch potatoes to athletes to the reality TV fanatics to compete in the challenges that will take them out of their comfort zones, and maybe around the globe.

"City Chase is all about teamwork, resourcefulness and the ability to make decisions on the fly,” said Jason Erkes, City Chase Inc. "Palm's Centro is the perfect tool to help contestants, whether it's connecting with teammates through SMS or browsing the web for information to help teams navigate—it's just a matter of who's faster.”

"Centro offers a simple and fun way for contestants to stay connected throughout the race and earn ChasePoints more quickly,” said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, Inc. "With all the features of a typical smartphone packed into the convenient size of a traditional mobile phone, it's the perfect tool for racing from landmark to landmark, or from work to happy hour.”

City Chase kicks off in Philadelphia on May 3 with thousands of participants using Centro to complete mobile challenges throughout the city and find ChasePoints.

Read the full press release here.